How I Rebuilt My Life After Burnout—And How You Can Too
There's this John Baptiste interview I heard where he says, "When you stop seeing yourself, you stop being yourself."
That's what was happening to me in 2020. I couldn't see myself anymore.
I had become a solo parent by choice. At 44, I had my child, and by 48 I was parenting a toddler during COVID. The quarantine was extended by a year for us because she was still too young to be vaccinated. After the first 3 months with my family in the suburbs –we were deeply grateful to watch that winter change to spring surrounded by open space – it was just the two of us, day after day.
I had pivoted from a one-woman nonprofit consulting practice to a full-time agency position. Not because it was a good fit. Not because I wanted to. But because I needed health insurance. Because this is America, and when you're a solo parent with a toddler during a global pandemic, you take the job with benefits even when everything in you says no.
The agency wasn't a cultural match. That's the polite way to say it. The real way? I was forced into a job where I couldn't see myself and I wasn't seen. Where I betrayed a lot of what I stand for—justice, equity, truth-telling + 30 years of nonprofit work building movements for change.
I tried my best to make it work. But my body started talking to me. And she didn't like what was happening there.
* * *
The pain started in my right wrist. Then my elbow. Burning pain—not ache, not soreness, BURNING. Like someone had lit a match under my skin and it wouldn't go out.
Then my left foot. Same fire.
Then my left shoulder.
The doctors called it tendonitis. I called it my body staging a full rebellion.
I started having panic attacks again after more than a decade. I stopped sleeping. Four hours a night if I was lucky. My jaw clenched so tight I thought my teeth would crack.
My hands would shake with adrenaline after a workday of back-to-back meetings that co-workers just kept adding to my calendar. My hands—always the last part of my body to be at peace.
I knew—the way you know when a relationship is over—that my body was done pretending this job was okay.
* * *
So I made a choice.
I threw myself out of the nest.
I went on disability for two years. And I rebuilt my entire life—one system, one value, one breath at a time.
It was a full court press on my body and my mindset:
Physical therapy for the burning in my wrists, elbow, foot, and shoulder.
Wet cupping acupuncture to move the energy that was stuck.
Meditation to learn how to be in my body again.
Talk therapy to process the grief, the rage, the fear.
Art therapy where I talked FROM my body and my heart—giving voice to the parts of me that had been screaming.
Nutrition counseling to learn what true nourishment means.
Creative writing where I began to write my way back to myself.
And—this is important—two coaches I'd been working with for 20 years.
Because here's the truth: Coaches need coaches.
When I was in the thick of it, drowning in my own stories about myself, I couldn't see clearly. The stories I was making up were loud and convincing:
I'll never recover from this.
I'm too old to start over.
I'll never be able to build something new.
This is just how life is now.
My coaches reminded me that I'd already done this before. A decade earlier, after a 10-year relationship ended, I had rebuilt my entire life. I had to re-examine what I wanted my next chapter to be—and I did it. Created parenthood, grew my consulting business, and took on every area of my life.
They helped me see that the stories I was telling myself weren't facts. They were fear.
And they held space for me to discover the truth, my knowing: that I had the courage, the wisdom, and the capacity to design the life I wanted. Not the life I thought I should have. Not the life that looked safe on paper. But MY life.
* * *
Two years. Messy. Terrifying. Exhilarating. Like jumping off a cliff without a bungee cord.
I had to learn what my body was trying to tell me. What serves me versus what confines me. What frees me versus what numbs me.
I had to reconnect with my Values again. My Vision. My Mission. Who I am when I'm not performing for a job, a partner, a society that wants me small and quiet and grateful.
And slowly—so slowly—I started to see myself again.
* * *
Here's what I know now:
Your body knows before your brain does.
Career burnout isn't just uncomfortable. It's not just "this job isn't a good fit" or "I need a vacation." Misalignment between your values and your daily reality is dangerous. It will take you down—physically, emotionally, spiritually.
My chronic pain, my insomnia, my rage, the burning in my wrists and foot and shoulder—those weren't separate problems. They were my body screaming: “F*ck. No.”
And the more I talked to other women in their 40s and 50s—midlife women in transition, mothers, solo parents, career-changers, women navigating perimenopause and new life chapters—I heard the same story. The same struggles. The same rage and pain and grief and that feeling of "I have everything I thought I wanted, so why does it feel like I'm drowning?"
Because we've been taught to override our bodies. To push through. To be grateful. To make it work.
But what if we didn't?
What if we listened?
* * *
This is why I do what I do. To make a difference with women on the same journey through the most transitional period in their lives.
This is why Front + Sena Coaching exists.
Because midlife women deserve a different kind of support. Not productivity hacks. Not "lean in" bullshit. Not more ways to optimize ourselves into exhaustion.
We deserve life coaching that starts with: What is your body trying to tell you?
We deserve to uncover our Values, clarify our Vision, live our Mission—not someone else's version of what our lives should look like.
We deserve midlife transformational coaching that honors our wisdom, our rage, our complexity, and our power.
* * *
If your body is saying "F*ck. No." right now...
If your body is saying no to your job, your relationship, the way you're living—I see you.
You're not broken. You're not failing. You're waking up.
And I can help.
As a mindset coach for women over 40, I specialize in helping midlife women in career transition, mothers navigating life changes, and women ready to stop shrinking and start becoming.
My coaching programs—Pathway to Purpose (90 days) and Purpose into Practice (180 days)—combine personal development, social justice frameworks, and creative modalities to help you:
💗 Gain clarity about your values and vision
💗 Build courage to take bold new actions
💗 Create alignment between your vision and reality
💗 Develop power for yourself and grace with loved ones
💗 Experience joy and freedom in your daily life
💗 Create a Life Design plan that’s actionable and gets real results in all areas of your life.
Ready to listen to what your body has been trying to tell you?
Let me be your cheerleader and let's turn your Messy into Magic™.
